“So, why read? Read because short of meeting and communing with them (and perhaps, because of this, writing about them), reading about diverse modes of being and consciousness is the best way we have of entering into them and abiding. To enter the flow-state of reading is to swim into other psyches with great ease, whatever their age, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, class or ethnicity.”
– Will Self, Why Read
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“Keep Reading. Keep watching movies and TV. Keep studying stuff that works. Study how Hemingway did it, or Tolstoy or Toni Morrison. That’s work. That counts as work. Books I love, I’ve read ten times. I’ve underlined them. I’ve scrawled notes in the margins. I’ve mangled their pages so badly I can barely close the covers. Movies? I’ve seen The Wild Bunch and Lawrence of Arabia so many times I can quote them from FADE IN to END CREDITS. I’ve watched Seven Samurai in so many translations I can cite the differing subtitles and tell you which versions I like best. That’s not getting into the weeds. That’s studying your craft.”
– Steven Pressfield, The Daily Pressfield
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We all operate with a radar of curiosity, a scanning device.
Each of our systems work at slightly different frequencies.
We pick up different objects. Most things in the wider world, we just don’t register. There’s no blip on our radar. They’re not interesting. We’re not curious about them. We’re not scanning for them.
But there are certain things that come up. For me, it’s books. I’m always on the lookout for new books, especially books about creativity, about writing, and I get so excited if I see one that sets these little alarms off in my head.
And then I get to read the book! What joy. I never stop. I never will. Reading is a bodily function for me. I need to read to survive.
It’s comforting to come to the realisation that I know what I like. I’m not seeking someone else’s hand holding. I have developed my own reading tastes. I don’t need to be part of the Zeitgeist. I am content with my own personal radar.
This seems to be the consolation of middle age.
Conversations With Quotations 